Every so often, we'll hear about a film that will give us a pronounced sense of
deja vu, and usually with good reason. Occasionally, and seemingly by accident, two film studios will independently get the same premise for a film greenlit, and once audiences and commentators realise what's going on, it will spark something of a rivalry between the studios, forcing each to up their game and hope that their vision of a particular idea comes out on top. This sort of predicament tends to have studios acting at their shadiest and most crafty, doing everything possible to show up their competition and win the box office war, such as even rushing production and pushing the release date forward so it seems like their project is the "proper" film, while the subsequent film is the "copy". As evidenced by this list, often the friendly competition will spill over into a genuine feud between filmmakers, regardless of whether it was a coincidence or not. Here are 10 suspiciously similar movies released in the same year...
10. Apartment Block Siege - The Raid vs. Dredd (2012)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rObXKciMIZs Indonesian action flick The Raid was a huge success on the 2011 festival circuit, such that it ended up getting released in 2012 to massive fanfare the world over. The plot involved a SWAT team infiltrating a giant high-rise building to take down a drug lord who was operating out of the top floor, while petrified civilians lived on the lower ones amid violent crime. Released a few months later, Dredd was, of course, adapted from the classic comic book series Judge Dredd, and featured...Dredd and Anderson infiltrating a high-rise building to take down a drug lord (oh, she's female this time) operating out of the top floor, while the terrified citizens lived on the lower floors amid violent crime.
Which Came First: The Raid was released first, yet Dredd started filming almost sixth months before, so though claims soon emerged that Dredd was ripping off The Raid, if anything it was the other way around, or more likely still, a coincidence.
Which Was Better: The Raid is a vastly superior action film, superbly directed and devastatingly brutal. Dredd is a massive improvement over the execrable Stallone film, though still hardly great cinema.